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For those MMA fans out there looking to watch tonight's UFC 110 event by less than legal methods online, you've got one less site to catch it on, as Zuffa, LLC, parent company of the UFC and WEC, has filed a lawsuit against the proprietor of www.Rage-Streams.net.
According to a story from the Las Vegas Sun, a lawsuit was filed on Thursday in Las Vegas against Moazzam Gandu, with the prime complaint that the site was offering "live streaming" video of UFC 110 for $6.99. The unauthorized broadcasts were set to go live tonight, but the site has been taken down since the lawsuit came out.
On top of the charged live events, the site had been offering unauthorized versions of 40+ past events as well.
The suit charges "Defendant's Web site is designed to trade off of plaintiff's goodwill... Defendant is using a mark that is the same and/or confusingly similar to the UFC marks in connection with the sale, offering for sale, or advertising of services in a manner that is likely to cause confusion or mistake, or to deceive consumers as to an affiliation, connection or association with plaintiff, or as to the origin, sponsorship, or approval of defendant’s services or commercial activities by plaintiff."
Penick's Analysis: This is a first step to a crack down on illegal streams that the UFC has openly stated they would be attempting, and while it successfully shut down one site there's plenty more that are out there or will pop up in the interim. The main problem this site ran into was charging for their illegal stream of the event. That brought a lot more attention to them than the other "resourceful" ways people find these events online. It's an extremely tough problem for any pay-per-view provider to really stop, as people on the internet always seem to find ways to get what they're trying to get, but this is a good sign to send to anyone running these sites that they're playing with fire and it's going to cost them.
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